SAN FRANCISCO, CA/EMBEDDED SYSTEMS CONFERENCE - March 8, 2005 - Joining an industry innovator to bring real-time Java-based solutions into the demanding embedded programming environment, Objective Interface Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in high-performance embedded and real-time distributed middleware solutions, today announced the first embedded middleware solution for real-time Java applications to support Sun Microsystems' Project Mackinac. The company's ORBexpress™ RT for Java allows developers using Project Mackinac technology—Sun's implementation of the Real-Time Specification for Java, known as RTSJ—to realize a level of performance for their real-time distributed Java applications that was only previously available to C++ or Ada programmers. Developers who want to leverage the benefits of Java—ease-of-use, stability, cross-platform portability and security—can now use Objective Interface ORBexpress RT for Java with Sun Microsystems' Project Mackinac to develop a wide range of real-time distributed applications, including: Voice over IP (VoIP), video-on-demand and IP telephony; wireless base station infrastructure; command and control systems; weapons systems; and robotics and industrial control applications.

“Most real-time systems are distributed in some way,” said Bill Beckwith, CEO of Objective Interface Systems, Inc. “From a CPU on a board communicating with peripheral devices over a bus to more complex systems connected over a network, the challenge in such environments is meeting the real-time requirements of the application and achieving similar predictability in communications over the network.”

According to Beckwith, the Sun-initiated Project Mackinac implementation of JSR-01 Real-time Specification for Java (RTSJ) goes a long way in satisfying the needs of developers who want to use a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in real-time applications. “The difficulty in building real-time systems with off-the-shelf software is ensuring that each software product has carefully implemented predicable and priority-respecting algorithms. Any time-dependent system must have foundational software—the OS, the protocol stack and the communications middleware—that faithfully adheres to these real-time properties. Our users have come to know and trust the real-time properties of our communications software. But even our products cannot overcome the lack of real-time behavior in foundational components like a JVM. This is why we were pleased when Project Mackinac technology passed our stringent tests to uncover priority inversions.”

“In the past, developers have traditionally relied on low-level programming to meet the needs of complex applications. Today, however, it is clear that an easy-to-use, real-time, vendor-neutral programming language would better ensure support for future product generations while providing a higher level of abstraction for real-time systems,” said Dr. Greg Bollella, Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems. “With these requirements in mind, we created Project Mackinac. We welcome the contributions of our third-party partners, such as Objective Interface, and we look forward to working together to bring real-time Java technology to system developers.”

About ORBexpress RT for Java
ORBexpress RT for Java enables developers to use the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) to enhance real-time performance of JVM-based applications in distributed embedded environments. ORBexpress RT incorporates features that allow Java developers to add real-time characteristics to their design, or to enhance performance of real-time Java profiles. Providing a thin, predictable layer between the Java application and the communication transports, ORBexpress RT minimizes both the typical-case and worst-case consumption of CPU time by the middleware ORB and provides predictable latency between devices in a distributed environment. Objective Interface worked with Sun Microsystems to ensure that there is a tight integration between ORBexpress RT and the underlying real-time Java environment, and that it satisfies all of the requirements of the RTSJ, which serves as the basis for Sun Microsystems' Project Mackinac technology. Project Mackinac technology supports both hard real-time and non-real-time functionality concurrently within a single JVM.

Embedded Systems Conference Workshop: For More Information on Sun Microsystems' Project Mackinac Technology and Objective Interface ORBexpress RT

Developers who want to learn more about Sun Microsystems' Project Mackinac and Objective Interface ORBexpress RT for Java can attend Sun Microsystems' Real-Time and Embedded Java Solutions Seminar workshop at the Embedded Systems Conference on Wednesday, March 9, 2005. Objective Interface CEO Bill Beckwith will give the presentation: “Experiences Porting a Real-Time Communications Infrastructure to Mackinac” at 2:00 pm. He will also be included in a panel discussion on Project Mackinac technology from 4:00-5:00 pm. For more details, please visit: http://www.esconline.com/sf/workshops/.

About Sun Microsystems' Project Mackinac
Project Mackinac, Sun Microsystems' first commercial implementation of the Real-time Specification for Java (JSR 01), is based on the interpretive code-based Java Hotspot platform, and is designed to deliver performance that is competitive with compiled solutions such as real-time C++, while retaining the ease-of-use and high-level abstractions that make Java so popular among developers and system architects. For more details, visit: http://www.research.sun.com/projects/mackinac.

Pricing and Availability
Consistent with the pricing of Objective Interface's family of ORBexpress RT products, ORBexpress RT for Java is sold on a per-developer seat basis, without any additional run-time or royalties. Further, the first year of maintenance and full technical support is included with each license. There are no project limitations, so each license can be used on any number of different projects. Quantity discounts are also available. The production version of ORBexpress RT for Java will be available from Objective Interface in Q2 2005.

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PRESS CONTACTS (not for publication):

OBJECTIVE INTERFACE
Alison Alberich
Phone: 703/295-6513
Email: alison.alberich@ois.com

VETRANO COMMUNICATIONS
Maria Vetrano
617/876-2770